Chennai: The entrance examination for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will go completely online from 2018, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) decided on Sunday.

Representational image. IBN Live

The JAB, which is the policy-making body on IIT admissions, took the decision at a meeting here. In a statement, director, IIT-Madras, and chairman JAB 2017, professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, "It has been decided that the JEE (Advanced) will be conducted in online mode from 2018 onwards. Further information regarding the examination will be provided by the JAB in due course."

The HRD Ministry had earlier introduced the option of taking the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains online. The JEE-Mains is the entrance examination for admission to engineering courses offered across the country and a qualifying exam for JEE-Advanced which is required for admission to the prestigious IITs and NITs.

"In order to make logistics and evaluations easier it was decided today that the JEE-Advanced should be made online," a JAB member said.

"The concept was being discussed for many years, but it was necessary to have adequate infrastructure to conduct the exam online," the member added.

More than 13 lakh students took the JEE-Mains this year, with less than 10 percent of them going online. Around 2.2 lakh students were eligible to write the JEE (Advanced).